Writing Quotes · Page 526

“All writers would like to be overrated in their own lifetimes.”

— Jay Parini

Ive probably written about three albums that no one will ever hear.

— Jim Sturgess

I don't feel the need to prove myself by writing the next generational novel.

— Camilla Lackberg

I set out to write an anti-parenting parenting book.

— Bruce Feiler

The moving finger writes; and having writ, moves on.

— Omar Khayyam

In all pointed sentences, some degree of accuracy must be sacrificed to conciseness.

— Samuel Johnson

I became a writer because I love books, and I believe in their power.

— Deb Caletti

I was very happy sitting alone at a dining room table, writing a script.

— Conrad Hall

I'm not sure why writing for others became harder. Probably a reluctance to give away anything you might conceivably use yourself caused…

— Dick Cavett

Every medium - oral, written, print, and now electronic - has its own associated thought patterns and mind sets.

— Dale Spender

I have brothers and was a tomboy, if that's still a designation. It wasn't a stretch for me to think and write…

— Louise Erdrich

Most science fiction seemed to be written for people who already liked science fiction; I wanted to write stories for anyone, anywhere,…

— Michael Chabon

I once knew a writer who, after saying beautiful things about the sea, passed through a Pacific hurricane, and he became a…

— Joshua Slocum

Writing is not for me. I completely lose my sense of humor when I write. I become extremely pathetic, very sensational. Images…

— Marjane Satrapi

Actually, when I write, there is a feeling of necessity, of something that is stronger than myself that demands that I must…

— Jacques Derrida

Beauty and truth may be attributes of good writing, but if the writer deliberately aims at truth, he is likely to find…

— Northrop Frye

Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who…

— William Faulkner

I'm usually a panster and throw ideas down on computer the second they hit my brain. I even had to get off…

— Franny Armstrong

Once you're directing, you're kind of in a certain mode, where you're taking whatever is on the page and forming it into…

— Gus Van Sant

The idea that writing about characters of another race requires a passage through a critical gauntlet, which involves apology and self-examination of…

— C.E. Morgan

As far as this categorization of books, the way I see it is there are really a hundred-odd categories of books plus…

— Markus Zusak

Beethoven was just music, and it didn't matter if he could hear it or not - he could feel it. He could…

— Smokey Robinson

“It was evident to me then that I existed in the same manner as all other men, that I must grow old,…

— Marcel Proust

“A story unwritten is without beginning or end. But in its potential lies another story; and in the heartbeat before pen meets…

— Nenia Campbell

I want to be seen as a good storyteller. I'm a manipulator as well.

— Wilbur Smith

Insofar as I'm good at directing, it's because I've become a writer.

— David Hare

Nay, Sir, those who write in them, write well, in order to be paid well.

— Samuel Johnson

If I'm writing something and I'm not feeling mischievous, then I know it's not going to be great.

— Elizabeth Meriwether

If you're a writer, you're constantly doubting yourself.

— Tom King

Fame often makes a writer vain, but seldom makes him proud.

— W. H. Auden

Live an interesting life. Meet people. Read a lot and widely, learn from the great writers

— Michael Morpurgo

I had wanted to write Ghost Country for a long time, but it wouldn't work.

— Sara Paretsky

I suppose I can do more for a script as an actor than as a writer - in the film sense.

— Jack Nicholson

“For me writing has always been best when it's intimate, as sexy as skin on skin.”

— Stephen King

My favorite period is World War II, and I'm in the middle of writing my fourth novel set in that era.

— Ken Follett

“The greatest book is one written by your pen, but not exactly from your mind.”

— Michael Bassey Johnson

I find writing really difficult - definitely the most difficult of all the things I do.

— Grant Heslov

“I thought of writing a summary about you, but when I finished it was a book.”

— Amit Kalantri

I am writing my second novel for children for Simon and Schuster.

— Marlee Matlin

I did not want to write, but I had to resign myself to it in the end.

— Samuel Beckett